Garlic Confit

This can very likely become the simplest, most revolutionary, most well-loved condiment in your kitchen.

I’m serious.

Okay, maybe not revolutionary (I’m certainly not the first person, or even one of the first 10,000 people, to make garlic confit). But let’s go with it.

If you like garlic, especially roasted garlic, then check out this little gem. Even if you think you don’t like garlic and think its flavor is too strong, still…check out this little gem.

If you’ve ever had roasted garlic before, then you have an idea of how delicious garlic confit can be. Garlic, when raw, has a very powerful aroma and an even stronger bite. It’s sharp; pungent, even. But when it’s slowly roasted, it becomes something else entirely. It becomes sweet, mellow, and soft.

But I dislike roasting garlic. Why? Because there’s this whole thing about the skins still being there when it’s cooked, and it seems difficult (at least, to me) to remove the softened cloves from the skins. My fingers get all sticky, and then the skins stick to my fingers, and I can’t seem to get them off and continue the task…and then sometimes the smaller cloves are too well-roasted (read: burnt) and are no longer usable. Maybe I just haven’t learned the trick to making this process easier, but to me, it’s annoying. And then, storing the roasted cloves is at best a very short-term event.

That’s where garlic confit is genius. While you have to peel the cloves beforehand (unless you “cheat” and buy one of those containers of already-peeled cloves, and I won’t judge if you do!), that’s the hardest part of the whole process. Once that’s accomplished, you just dump cloves and olive oil in a saucepan and let it do its thing for an hour, pour it all into a jar, and you’re rewarded with that rich, buttery, garlick-y gold that you can portion out for all sorts of dishes, and throw the rest into the fridge for storage.

Not that your jar will last long. Because once you discover all the delicious uses for garlic confit, you’ll be finding yourself going through your stash pretty quickly. (I’ve finished one jar within a week, and had to make another!) If you really don’t think you’ll use up this much confit before it goes bad, however, feel free to halve the recipe – just use the smallest saucepan you have.

What can you make with garlic confit? Anything that calls for garlic (and more!), such as:

See? Possibilities are endless. I’ve been using it in place of raw garlic in a lot of my recipes, hence why I’ve gone through it so quickly. It’s convenient, and it’s just that good.

Do yourself a favor – take a bit of time and whip up a batch of garlic confit. You’ll be glad you did.

Garlic Confit (gluten-free, vegan, soy-free)

25-30 cloves of garlic, peeled

1 c olive oil

Put garlic cloves and olive oil in a small saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat until bubbles appear. Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for an hour. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Pour into a jar or other resealable container and store in refrigerator for one week (I’ve read some stories that say it’s okay to keep it for up to two weeks – but if you want to err on the side of caution, one week is more conservative).

I’ve heard that this is really dangerous to do. Garlic can harbor botulism, and an anaerobic environment (covered in oil) is the ideal growing environment for botulism. You can’t see it or smell it if grows, so there’s no way to tell if it’s in there. It’s safe if you use it right away, or store it in the fridge for no more than a week. Here’s an article about it: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/food-aliment/garlic-ail-eng.php

(Just thought you might want to update your directions for the storage with some notes about the safety issue. I totally LOVE garlic confit, but only make it when I want to use it, so I make it with a lot less oil and then usually end up throwing out some of the oil after using the garlic.)

Deanna – Thank you for that. I read conflicting stories about how long to keep it when I was posting that guidance. I will update my directions – definitely don’t want anyone getting sick – but I saw both one and two weeks labeled as acceptable.

I recently tried fermented garlic cloves. It totally didn’t work. I have a jar of nasty on my fridge that I’m avoiding dealing with. We user this method in the restaurant all the time, but never considered it for the home. I have no idea why not. Brilliant. I’ll make some today!

I love making the confit and using it right away (or within a few days) and have found that any lingering around works GREAT to 1. Strain out the cloves (save the oil for vinaigrette); 2. Smash the cloves and freeze the paste in 1 or 2 tablespoon amounts (our favorite salad dressing uses 2 tablespoons of roasted garlic so this way, I always have it on hand). Both the flavored oil and the garlic paste go into all sorts of things VERY easily.

Result? I buy the bags of peeled garlic cloves at Costco and make a LOT at one time.

[…] such as this Pistachio-Olive Stuffing. Another wonderful condiment worth your time to make is Garlic Confit. It takes a bit of time, but it’s mostly hands-off, and the reward is a lovely, roasted, […]

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